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Refugee Admission numbers for FY2018

FY17 closed on September 30th:

September 30, 2017: Donald Trump had set the new ceiling for the year (FY17) at 50,000, but ultimately went over the cap for a total of 53,716 admitted. 23,594 entered the US since Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

October 1, 2017: The President set the cap for FY18 at 45,000, and federal contractors wailed.

January 1, 2018: During the first three months of FY18, the US admitted 5,323 refugees. If this rate continued until September 30th, the last day of the fiscal year, we would admit around 22,000 for the year.

Mission

* Educate citizens about Refugee Resettlement Policy of the U.S. Government.

* Encourage grassroots citizenry to become involved in this issue and by becoming involved help direct the future of your community.

* Encourage reform of Refugee Resettlement Policy at a national level.

Mogadishu — Approximately 6.5 million Somali girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) — otherwise known as female circumcision — according to a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Although support for the practice is waning, the report indicates that 98% of Somali women between 15 and 49 have been cut or mutilated — the highest per capita percentage in the world.

In addition, the report states that female circumcision is higher among Somalis even in countries where the practice is less common.

We reported back in March that the practice was increasing in the US, here.

Photo: The photo is from another report on FGM in June, here. Looks like there is less and less interest in defending the procedure in a nod to ‘cultural relativism’ that seemed to be a trend gaining favor a few years ago. And, from a practical standpoint, why should Westerners be expected to pay for the mental and physical health problems stemming from FGM when Somalis are resettled in the US.

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Female genital mutilation (there is nothing called “female circumcision”) is a pre- and extra-Islamic custom, prevalent in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries / regions for centuries predating the arrival of Islam. Non-Muslims, that include Christians, Jews and animists practice this brutal practice in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries, as well as in Egypt, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and several other Arab countries and among Malays/Indonesians in Southeast Asia and even among the Malay/Indonesian Diaspora in Australia.

This pre-Islamic brutal practice is so well-entrenched and acceptable among Arab Muslims that some Muftis and Sheikhs try to justify this misogynist barbarity by attributing some “scientific” / “medical” justification to the practice. The late Sheikh Gad al-Haq of al-Azhar defended female genital mutilation as an antidote to HIV Virus. He told this rubbish to the BBC in 2000, a couple of years before his death. I have cited this interview in my book, Women and Islam in Bangladesh (Palgrave-Macmillan 2000).

This barbaric practice, which often kills the female victims, and many of them suffer chronic infections and pain for the rest of their lives. Most importantly, this cruel practice alienates many women (including the victims) from Islam. Ex-Muslim, Ayaan Hirji Ali of Somalia is one of them. She has given vivid description of how painful and brutal the custom is.

“In April, UNICEF released a survey based on interviews conducted in Somalia’s northern region of Puntland and the breakaway state of Somaliland, which showed that the practice of FGM has decreased. The survey, conducted in collaboration with local governments, found that 75 percent of girls aged between one and 14 have not been cut, in comparison with 99 percent of young girls who have undergone the procedure in other regions in Somalia.”